Exhibition on Dehua porcelain spurs ceramics craze in Malaysia

An exhibition featuring Dehua ceramics was held on Saturday at Sunway Pyramid Shopping Center in Selangor, Malaysia, which attracted many Malaysian people to explore the unique charm of Dehua porcelain products.

About 35 Dehua-based ceramic enterprises jointly exhibited high-quality white porcelain products including master art porcelain, household daily-use porcelain, and export craft porcelain at the exhibition, demonstrating the rich cultural heritage and exquisite skills of Dehua ceramics in an all-round way. 

Dehua porcelain is a type of white Chinese porcelain made in Dehua County, Quanzhou City, southeast China's Fujian Province. The plain white porcelain crafted there has been dubbed "Blanc de Chine" (White from China) by the French and gained worldwide fame.

Fang Junqin (4th R), head of Dehua County, Quanzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, poses for a group photo with guests at an exhibition featuring Dehua ceramics, which kicks off on Saturday at Sunway Pyramid Shopping Center in Selangor, Malaysia.

In 2022, the output value of Dehua ceramics exceeded 50 billion yuan, said Fang Junqin, the head of Dehua County.

Porcelain industry in Dehua County is not only a leading industry, but also a livelihood industry. There are more than 4,000 ceramic enterprises. Among the 356,000 people in the county, one out of three people is engaged in ceramic-related work, Fang introduced.

This year, Dehua will begin the implementation of a new five-year action plan for the high-quality development of the porcelain industry and strive to build Dehua porcelain into a hundred billion industry cluster by 2027, Fang noted.

Fang also pointed out that with RCEP agreement taking effect, the export of Dehua porcelain to Southeast Asian countries has grown rapidly. From January to September 2022, Dehua exported 5.77 million U.S. dollars of porcelain products to Malaysia, surging 324.29 percent year on year.

According to Fang, Malaysia is perceived as the "translator" and "catalyst" for Dehua porcelain to enter the international market.